FFPS:FFTF question

[Cruachan 705]

16 minutes ago, KBUR said:

Ahhh...FSPS:  Guyes, please be aware of the fine print!  You MUST always be online with every new start-up of FFTF Dynamic application, or the product will deny to run.

(Quote from FSPS site):  " Up and running internet connection for activation and license checking of the product on each application's start-up."

I had an serious issue with the former FSPS Fiber Accelerator (FSPS product), because most of the time I play my flight-sims offline - and always had to go online only because of the Fiber Accelerator. 

Personally I could care less. In fact these days I respect any mechanism used by 3rd Parties to protect their intellectual property from illicit use. If I and others remain unaffected then what grounds do we have for serious complaint?

Mike

[KBUR 178]

Well, this hint was meant to be for simmers who like to fly offline like me, off course.  But I certainly would deny to buy this product if I would fly online all the time,  because I hate this big-brother-is-always-watching-you mentality of certain online vendors so much.

4 minutes ago, GSalden said:

Probably all of the simmers I know are using Live Weather programs and have to be online for that.

Therefore this won’t be an issue for them.

 

[fluffyflops 1,847]

22 minutes ago, GSalden said:

Exactly Mike . They test on their product. They can’t test all addons out there.

no,  and they dont test with the biggest sellers either

[Cruachan 705]

Where the Internet is concerned, maintaining a healthy level of paranoia is always wise. Perhaps, in instances such as this, a better way might be to check the legitimacy of a licence holder once following installation and simply leave it at that. I think the assumption is that most folk are connected these days, so running a quick check each time the software starts keeps everyone right. I’m quite sure FSPS are not alone and, in time, this method will become commonplace....assuming that it isn’t already 😉

Mike

[GSalden 4,656]

Guys , it is saturday evening here .

See us tomorrow 

[Cruachan 705]

6 hours ago, tooting said:

So.. can you tell me what line i need to put in the config file if I buy this application

My assumption is you don’t because any changes to FFTF are handled dynamically by this App on the fly. I believe all values in Prepar3D.cfg are read into memory when the sim starts so any manual adjustments made to the file content while the sim is running will be ineffective until next start. User modifications made using the sim’s GUI are saved to Prepar3D.cfg on exit.

Regards,

Mike

[GSalden 4,656]

No need to put a FFTF tweak in your cfg file. And If you have one : no need to delete it. The program will handle it internally...

Edited March 17, 2018 by GSalden

[HUSSAR 263]

Bonjour Gerard,

I'm really interested in this app.  I don't want to play with its settings so can I just start it and let it manage the FFTF setting?  

[SteveW 1,792]

16 hours ago, Nyxx said:

from LM

[MAIN]

FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.33

Non-Default entry. This entry will not exist in your Prepar3D.cfg file by default and must be added to the file.

Performance Tuning Tip:

This setting, which defaults to a value of .33 (33%), defines the percentage of each frame that is devoted to loading scenery. Increasing this number can reduce "the blurries", but it can cause stutters, and can also reduce the overall frame rate. Try reducing the number to the lowest level where you still get smooth scenery paging. This will vary depending on disk speed as well as the type of flying, as well as the selected scenery settings.

 

So it is very clear that the sim value we can override with FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION and it does this: "defines the percentage of each frame that is devoted to loading scenery".

Let's see, doesn't say anything about fps - remember ANYTHING affects fps in some way shape or form.

However when we think of affecting fps we mean alters it effectively. So when we try overriding FFTF with the .cfg setting it doesn't effectively change the fps, may affect it a bit.

When it says "percentage of each frame that is devoted to loading scenery" it does not mean our fps will come down to accommodate it because it is referring to data gathering "fibres" as can be expected from the name of the setting. Fibres are set to the task of collecting scenery by another thread so fps can be maintained consistently by the main task of rendering. Fibres are just like threads but are created and managed by the app cooperatively rather than by the system scheduler.

These functions can take seconds to complete but they are in another process so they don't affect the fps. Instead *they affect the state of the available data for the scene*.

 

It was asked  something like "why do LM not do such a thing when they could do it within the sim". Simple fact is - they do - more later.

 

The scenery is layered into the sim with a quadtree search building the nearest visible stuff around the plane first and adding more in as it becomes available. Like you see some images in our browsers take shape in a blurred form fairly quickly then improve from there with increasing detail until complete. Same thing happens in the sim. If not enough time is given to gathering the image then the resolution of that image will be lower and the scene may show as blurred.

 

Says "can cause stutters". If we increase FFTF in the running app it will take longer loading those textures. If the textures are loaded already it keeps loading them until they are loaded - did i just say that? So time is wasted before relenting so the setting must be maintained by interrupting the firing of the fibres. This won't happen all the time as any program would halt the sim too often to do that, instead a percentage might be caught and so operated on with the new setting.

 

Ok so I said "They do".

So what do MS/LM do? The fibres can be spawned on more logical processors which mean they get ample time to gather the data with the default internal handling.

So an app can change the value but what of the manual setting? When we set the manual setting it's not forced within the sim, just sort of suggested as the base value to make considerations from, depending on the current state of the sim. So whatever we type in will not result in too little or too much of either side of the process.

Having a many cored CPU would mean most likely that the outside application control over FFTF is unnecessary.

 

 

 

Edited March 18, 2018 by SteveW

[Richard McDonald Woods 168]

I am already spending too much time as a flight simulator maintenance technician.

I am happy for LM to make their own code changes as they see fit to give their customers the best experiences possible.

I do not want to understand all of the techniques employed in flight simulation, just to try to learn to fly as well as I can.

[Gabe777 132]

Why don't you all pull the sliders one notch to the left and turn off dynamic lighting.

 

All these tweaks are, fankly, ridiculous.

I fly FTX everything, with AS16 and REX Textures Direct, snd get 60 fps minimum in every plane I fly, outside over 100 and in VC 60 or more. And not a blurry, or pop up autogen, in sight (except in my Tornado at 800 mph at 1000ft above Anglessey !)

I fly the A2A stuff, the Dash 8 and Carenado do228..... and Realair Duke v2 - with the GTN 750.

I have hardware similar to people here: i7 7700k at 4.5, GTX 1080, on an m.2 860 ssd.

I run at a 1080p rez, with 4xssaa..... or 2K rez with 2xssaa (same thing). I also have Opaque Shadows set to 8192.... for sharp cockpit shadows

I tweak nothing else, other than using a 244 affinity mask.

Each aircraft is tweaked using Simstarter, for day and night, so each addon has slightly customised graphics settings, to ensure smooth sailing at 60 fps.

For me, P3D gives me 3 things I never had in FSX:

1. nice VC shadows,

2. cloud shadows on the terrain, and

3. 60 fps all of the time.

As for PMD at 120 bucks ? No chance, until they switch to an external engine like the GTN and Majestic's Dash 8 !

So why are people tweaking 'this, that and the other' and setting fps to '23' '45', '32' ? I have never heard anything so stupid.

But, I know why....... you all "have" to max out the graphics settings. Why ? Turn off Reflection this, dynsmic the other.... shadow distance and quality...... no noticebale difference anyway, between mefium and ultra...... rtc etc.

It already looks twice as good as FSX ever did, out of the box ! And it runs 5 times as well.

Parkinson' s law in action huh ?

Geeze.

 

Edited March 18, 2018 by Gabe777

[Nyxx 6,993]

29 minutes ago, Gabe777 said:

I fly FTX everything, with AS16 and REX Textures Direct, snd get 60 fps minimum in everI fly the A2A stuff, the Dash 8 and Carenado do228..... and Realair Duke v2 - with the GTN 750.

Well if you used something more than very fps friendly GA. (the dash is the most fps aircraft above GA's out there with any depth)

Try something like FSL A320 or PMDG 747, then you might be very interested in how to get more out of the sim.

So to quote you

32 minutes ago, Gabe777 said:

All these tweaks are, frankly, ridiculous.

Geeze.

 

So are you comments.  

34 minutes ago, Gabe777 said:

As for PMD at 120 bucks ? No chance

So why are people tweaking 'this, that and the other' and setting fps to '23' '45', '32' ? I have never heard anything so stupid.

Just because you choose to fly the aircraft you do, don't think everyone else is ridiculous for wanting to get as much as possible out of the sim, some use 4k and that's hard on FPS alone, then add in demanding addon aircraft etc.

You comment are little more than someone saying I have great FPS when flying the default CUB! O really!!

Thanks for you well thought out contribution to the topic and pointing out how well A2A stuff, the Dash 8 and Carenado do228 and Realair Duke v2 run^^

You contribution to this topic in your words is

"frankly, ridiculous." and "I have never heard anything so stupid"

 

 

[SteveW 1,792]

18 hours ago, Cruachan said:

Personally I could care less. In fact these days I respect any mechanism used by 3rd Parties to protect their intellectual property from illicit use. If I and others remain unaffected then what grounds do we have for serious complaint?

Mike

The feedeback I get is that having to be online to run an addon is a serious problem for many, even where I live in the UK it is a problem being online continuously enough to reliably start the sim only when the "internet is up". That won't last long now as the supply is improving in the next few months. But for many around the world, and I'm not talking about North America and Europe, they have a longer wait yet for a decent connection. The fact of life is that all software will be copied and can still be used irrespective of online authentication anyway - so it can often annoy the real customers but the illicit users couldn't care less.

[SteveW 1,792]

Fibres are responsible for terrain loading. Looking at the P3D Display Settings World - Texture resolution keep that at one or even as low as two meters while setting up. Only after setting the other sliders go back last to that and try increasing it. When the sim notches move it back.

[newtie 533]

4 hours ago, Gabe777 said:

Why don't you all pull the sliders one notch to the left and turn off dynamic lighting.

 

I've often thought how I could make an algorithm that would correlate money with slider notches to the right. Kinda like a P3D buying menu; up to a point where no amount of money or tweaking will make a difference. 

Could be the next tweak 

Cheers,

Mark